• Msgr. Sean Healy
  Diocese of Northampton, UK

I have been a diocesan priest for over forty years and much of that time has been spent in parish ministry. The experience of parish ministry is always rich and varied and is never easy to neatly fit into a routine. One day is never the same as the next as things will happen unexpectedly and cause us to change plans and direction. Those years have given me so many experiences and memories and running through all of them is my commitment to, and fascination with, prayer. In the following words, I would like to describe how that experience of prayer has shaped my life and ministry. There have been three main building blocks to my life of prayer – personal prayer, the Eucharist and the Divine Office.

I can remember in my seminary days, how the need for prayer was constantly being emphasised. I think that it was a lesson that I took very much to heart and down through the years my need for prayer – personal time with the Lord – has grown exponentially! It does not mean to say that I have become a master in prayer or something of a mystic, but I have discovered how I need prayer to shape my life and ministry. Prayer is not like any other appetite – if you are hungry and eat, your hunger abates – the need for prayer can never be fully satisfied. Prayer is inviting us to enter more fully into the life of the Blessed Trinity, to discover anew the love of the Father, the friendship of the Son and the warmth of the Holy Spirit. I have found, over the years, that the time I give to prayer always prepares me well for the day and all its many events and so I need to find time for prayer at the beginning of the day. This, I believe, reflects the prayer of Jesus himself: he needed time to be with his Heavenly Father and this allowed him to minister to those around him. His moments of ‘formal prayer’ empowered him for the ‘extended prayer’ of his engagement with the world. In recent years, my preferred method of praying is the prayer of ‘simple regard’ – placing myself in God’s presence, sometimes using a sacred word or an image to still myself and discover the flow of the Divine within me. Slowly, I discover that distractions and the worries of life seem to subside and from deep within there is a harmony between my deepest self and the love and will of the Father. By ‘will of the Father’, I mean that our prayer must always be directed to the mission and calling that we have received. Prayer will help us understand that we are witnesses to the Lord in daily living and that our calling is to bring Christ to those around us. Perhaps that’s why the greatest gift of prayer is compassion. A gift that we are called to share and to live. If the priest is a man of prayer, his presence can speak and touch the people around him. My priestly life has increasingly become a prayer of gratitude for the many blessings that the Father has given me and for the ways in which those blessings have come through situations and people. Over the years my prayer life has been ‘topped up’ by retreats and days of recollection and I have been truly privileged to sit at the feet of so many who have taught me to value and to live prayer. During a sabbatical, I was lucky to be able to undertake an Ignatian Thirty Day retreat. I often view it as an experience which is still slowly releasing its power and potential within me – the extended periods of prayer, the use of scripture and the insights of Ignatius have attuned my heart to the things of God and to His presence around me.

“I have found, over the years, that the time I give to prayer always prepares me well for the day and all its many events and so I need to find time for prayer at the beginning of the day.”

The Mass, of course, is central to the life of the priest. Here in word and sacrament we encounter Christ. He feeds us and strengthens us. But we also need to be attentive to what is being asked of us and to prepare ourselves ‘worthily and well’ for what the Lord wishes to share with us. In recent years I have developed the practice of ‘saying a few words’ at daily Mass. This has come about mainly through pondering the word that will be read at the daily Mass but also because I see it as an expression of my spirituality as a diocesan priest. That spirituality is not always easy to define, but it is, in part, about belonging – we belong to a diocese, to a parish and we are called to shepherd the people entrusted to our care. Breaking open the word, placing it in the context of daily living, balancing it with the experiences of the people we serve, is a unique calling of the diocesan priest. I always like to remind myself that during the Mass there is a twofold sending of the Holy Spirit; firstly, to transform the elements into the body and blood of Christ, the food for our journey and secondly, to transform the lives of those who attend to make them into the body of Christ in the world. The priest is called to encourage and equip his people for this task. Sunday Mass can, of course, be an experience which is full of distractions and the best planned liturgies can be prone to unforeseen disasters, but if the priest is a man of prayer and reverence, his presence can reveal himself and the God whom he loves and serves.

That brings me to my third strand, the Divine Office. The Office is, of course, devised to be a communal activity and the reciting of the Office on our own can become monotonous or a chore. But we should try as best we can to make the Office our prayer. It unites us with the prayer of Christ himself and with praying communities throughout the world. I often draw consolation from the fact that the psalms and prayers that I recite are also being said in every part of the world. It is through the Office that we widen our view to take in the whole Church and the whole human race. Through its rhythm and structure, we are challenged to expand our range of reactions in prayer. To discover ways of praying, especially through the psalms, which may not be our natural or preferred way. As I have said, most importantly the Office unites us with Christ whose work of redemption flowed from prayer and sacrifice as he did the will of his Father and followed the path set before him. I have also found it helpful in the parish to encourage others to pray the Divine Office and to come to value its beauty and structure.

“Breaking open the word, placing it in the context of daily living, balancing it with the experiences of the people we serve, is a unique calling of the diocesan priest.”

In my journey of prayer, I have also found it useful to find a place for Our Blessed Lady and for the Saints. Mary teaches us so much as she brings us closer to her Divine Son and the lives of the Saints, in their steadfastness, their joy, their holiness of life, teach and inspire us on a daily basis. What a rich treasure we have in our Catholic tradition! I have also found it useful to meet regularly with a spiritual director, someone who can accompany me as I seek to deepen and expand my experience of prayer.

I know that my search for prayer continues and that it will only end when, I hope, I will be singing the praises of God for all eternity!

• (Monsignor Sean Healy is a priest of the Diocese of Northampton in the UK. He studied at the Venerable English College in Rome and was ordained in 1980. After a number of parish assignments, he was asked to serve as the vicar general of the Diocese, a role which he exercised for the next twenty years. He is also Provost of the Cathedral Chapter and currently serves as Parish Priest in St Teresa’s, Beaconsfield.)